In Japan, in distinction from other countries, film scripts are sometimes read as literature. Those written by Yasunari Kawabata, Junichiro Tanizaki and Yukio Mishima are included in their respective collected works, and writers associated mainly with cinema itself are given literary status.
It was this distinction that the noted translator Howard Hibbett observed when he edited his epochal "Contemporary Japanese Literature" (1992) and included several film scripts, among them that of Kogo Noda/Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Story."
The Noda/Ozu script does indeed satisfy the requirements of a literary work. It is recognized as having important or permanent artistic value -- it is perfectly proportioned, acutely observed, deeply felt.
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